When you’re choosing a therapist, it can seem difficult to find one that suits all of your needs and who will also have an understanding of the situation you’re going through. You want to know that you can trust the person you’re sharing intimate details of your life with, and this is perfectly normal!

Couples Therapist, Mary Kay Cocharo, is a great match for people in the west Los Angeles area. She’s worked with individuals, couples, and even families on their issues for nearly 30 years, and loves the work that she does. She has gone on to become a Certified Imago Relationship Therapist, as well as a Practitioner of Encounter-centered Couples Therapy, so that she can offer the best, most therapeutic experience to her clients possible.

Mary Kay’s decision to become a Couples Therapist came from her own life experiences, and as a result, it’s something she firmly believes in.

Many years ago, she and her husband were having a hard time and discovered Imago Therapy. It was so powerful and worked so well that she decided to devote herself and her career to helping other people going through relationship issues. She believed that this modality could make her clients happy and whole again.

According to Mary Kay in the YourTango Experts video above, the issues confronting couples can be varied and range from big to small. After all, marriages can be intensely hard work sometimes.

Over the lifetime of a marriage, couples face many difficult things. Couples will be tried by issues like raising kids, dealing with changing sexual interests, and even trying to adapt and grow together with changing needs and wants. Something as simple as getting along can become such a dizzying challenge that it can throw both you and your spouse for a loop as you try to work together to repair, build, and strengthen your relationship.

Luckily, however, marriage therapy has changed quite a bit over the years, and now brain science informs us as to what it takes for couples to have a long and successful relationship together. A good Couples Therapist knows this research and can incorporate it into your work.

But it’s not all just figuring out what you might need. Sometimes when problems arise, it can be important to understand how to communicate with each other. Learning good communication tools are the number one reason couples come into counseling.

In addition to Marriage Counseling, Mary Kay also devotes a chunk of her work to Premarital Counseling. It’s important for couples to lay a good foundation for their life ahead. Gaining good communication tools is part of that preparation, as well.

She offers a Workshop for seriously committed and engaged couples called Start Right, Stay Connected. It’s a fun, informative and fast-paced way to learn effective communication, deepen your connection, resolve conflict and develop a shared relationship vision. And it works. Couples who undergo this type of counseling are actually 30 percent more likely to stay together than those who don’t.

So no matter what stage of relationship you’re in, reaching out to an experienced, trained Relationship Therapist can help you to build a stable foundation or get back on track with the love you once had. A healthy relationship is one of the best gifts you can give yourselves.